My next article is about India's most trusted bank - ICICI. My first bank account was with Andhra Bank, which was largely used to deposit my salary cheque every month. Later, once salaries were processed into the bank accounts directly, I was forced to open an account with ICICI, way back in 2001. Since then I have been maintaining this account and have also opted for several of their products like loans (housing, personal, mortgage, top-up, etc), Demat accounts, NPS, Insurance, and so on.
I still use ICICI for most of my transactions inspite of having a relationship with a few other banks - Just that I got used to it. Well, there are other reasons too (some positives)
User-friendly Internet portal and all products under one roof
Continuous upgrade of systems
New innovative products
Easy access to funds
Many branches, however, I have to admit have not visited branches much as most requirements are closed online.
Quality Customer care and support (earlier, not anymore)
Most of my UPI apps are connected to the ICICI account
However, in the past few years (to be precise, after the exit of Mr. KV Kamath), my experience has been very different and deteriorating each day. So let us see some of the reasons :
Contact Center
There is no way you can reach their customer care, to talk to someone directly. Even if you succeed in answering a few IVRS questions, you are forced to listen to their advertisements, products, details of the bank transactions, last paid amount in the card, etc, etc.... only to end up with an engaged tone. Probably the caller disconnected the line. If you want to email, first you need to update a complaint online on their website and then use the reference number. Inspite of doing that, I have faced situations where no one bothered to reply. They have several email IDs listed on their website for escalation, but none of them responds to you. Mostly, these are glorified generic IDs. If you write to the customer care ID, you get standard bot responses on time, but the resolution never comes.
Recently, someone used my email ID (which has been registered with ICICI since the time Gmail was introduced) and took a business equipment loan. I am salaried and have never taken any business loan. I started getting details of the loan mailed one after another - sanction letter, copy of the documentation, welcome letter, etc. I wrote back to the bank and told them that I have not opted for any such loan. After a couple of reminders, customer care replied asking for more details like account number, application number, etc. When I told them that I have not taken any loan, don't they have the basic common sense to understand that there will be no account number? Do they expect me to open the details of other customers and share them? Cant they atleast go back and check what has happened with this email ID - who used it etc? Instead, they kept writing back to me asking for more details. I can't believe that a bank like ICICI does not even have a dedupe or email OTP verification done before sending all confidential details by e-mail. Am not sure if it's ignorance or arrogance, but it is evident that they care a damn about the customers and their concerns.
Sales and Marketing Calls / Emails
I stopped using the Demat account after I ended up paying a huge amount as charges. They asked me to upgrade my account to get a lesser commission rate for transactions. However, I refused. Since then, they keep calling me in the name of service confirmation, just to sell different demat packages. They have provided a dedicated relationship manager with contact details for my Savings account and in general. The relationship manager keeps changing every month. The best part is that they call once (yes, only once) to check if we need any new products, and that's the end of it. If you have any issues, they can't resolve it for you. You have to talk to customer care or visit the branch only. Then what's the point of having relationship managers - only to cross-sell?
Gone are the days of 24 hours call centers and 365 days service standards. While their contact centers don't take customer complaints on Saturdays and Sundays (Its available only on Weekdays from 9am to 6pm), they have no shame in calling you on Sundays as well to sell any product. Email spams are countless. I get more than 20 emails every week from ICICI for various products. Do they think we customers have nothing else to do but read these repetitive emails every day?
Account / Loan Services
The bank is so friendly when you apply for loans or take an overdraft on FD etc. It's instant and you get to use the funds immediately. It did help me in some desperate situations. However, that's not the case when you have to make any pre-closure or close the Overdraft accounts. They insist that we visit the branch for the same and make it the most complicated process by filling out forms, giving request letters, etc. The intent is to make you forget the thought of closing the account or loan and continue paying interest. The interest rates of the home loan keep changing every month upward and it's done without any confirmation from us. But if we have to reduce the interest rates, we have to again visit the branch and give a request letter, over that pay an additional fee as well. Why can't the bank pay us a fee for increasing the interest rates? Why are these rules completely one-sided and in favor of the bank? Even RBI does not seem to care about such practices.
ICICI application - I have to admit that ICICI has one of the most user-friendly app interfaces and so many utilities inside the mobile app. However, oflate, they have been bombarding us with flash ads exactly the moment the initial screen loads. While you are keen to press the statement option or see the balance, the ad comes in between and you end up clicking the ad. After that, you have to click the back button to get back to the home screen. They exactly know where and when you will click and what you would like to see. They force us to see and click what they want us to see and click. It is so annoying. Why annoy customers with such Ads and ? The issue is same with the web application as well. They have push ads even in the page which has customer care details. Getting the IT certificate for the home loans or viewing NPS statements etc is not possible in the app, you have to log in to the web application.
Some expectations !
Stop push ads in the Application and Web portal. We are not using the app to see your ads ! Period.
Open contact centers on Saturdays and Sundays and extend the timings every day for complaints atleast (if not for service requests)
Have email and mobile dedupe / OTP verification to avoid sending confidential details to outsiders or non-customers.
Allow customers to pre-close or close accounts online.
Stop spamming our inbox with marketing mails every day.
While the above is related to ICICI, am sure there are other banks also which does such annoying activities. How can we ignore Bajaj Finance - I think 50% of the calls connected at any point of time in Indian mobile network will be a Bajaj Finance sales call. Neither RBI or TRAI or any such regulator is bothered about such shameless companies which harass people in the name of marketing. Have you faced such issues with your bank, please comment below.
